Blame has become an indispensable commodity used to mold men into subdued slaves. The mere act of blame is sufficient to put the stoutest men into a defensive pose; they know, we know, too well the social consequences attending shadowy accusations - whether contrived or true.
The only powers our accusers have, however, are the internal emanations derived from self-doubt and, sometimes, self-loathing that provide a pathway for external manipulations. Without these disturbances the most persuasive arguments would likely fail to cause us to act in ways adverse to our well-being. If we fully believe we have committed no sin is there any need for us to act as though we have?
Like all manipulations, blame manufactures an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Blame, itself, is not an empty vessel: Blame is a force; a force that compels a person to submit to his accuser’s demands.
A fouled religious upbringing filled me with a destructive accumulation of guilt. Guilt swelled my ego with an over zealous sense of power; I truly believed I was responsible for the misery of people around me. Opportunistic predators sensed my vulnerability - they exploited it at every turn. These miserable relationships caused me to believe that I, alone, was the sole author of humankind’s ‘Book of Happiness’.
On those rare occasions when I defended myself, doubt-driven confusion muddied my thoughts so thoroughly only a fool would believe my innocence.For years I believed there were two states of being: Guilt or innocence. I was wrong. When it comes to acts of wrongdoing we are either guilty or not guilty – innocence is irrelevant.
What human being, what tribe of human beings, what clan, body politic, nation or continent can honestly lay claim to a state of innocence? By virtue of our humanity, and the history of that humanity, we must all be satisfied with the knowledge of our imperfect state; those imperfections cause us to err, to commit wrongdoing, to live in a state of friction defined by abstract ‘rights and wrongs’ that have gnawed mankind’s conscience for millennia. In a perfect world there would be no sin, no need for blame, no demands for guilt-driven amends – Mankind would be perfect and, therefore, innocent. But this is an imperfect world filled with imperfect human beings.
When, in 1992, white South Africans voted to end Apartheid they did so knowing full well the sins of Apartheid would be used against them. Since that day in 1994 when the ANC took over, virtually every ill afflicting South Africa’s blacks has been blamed on Apartheid and since Apartheid has no body to punish, and no soul to blame, the obligation of guilt is the sole burden of the Boers.
Justified by countless accusations of Boer wrongdoing, South Africa’s blacks have unleashed a malignancy of hate paralleled only by blame-driven demands that, when satisfied, will reduce Boers to paupers whose pathetic cries for pity will be met with the edge of the machete blade or the swooshing sound of kerosene-filled tires wrapped around their necks. The vessel will never be filled – Never!
No matter the shallowness of the sin or, in most instances the absence of wrongdoing, accusers manufacture consent for their actions through a series of contrived rationalizations that always, always, portray the accused as a wretched conniver.
We see this same madness being played out in Israel. Palestinians have perfected the music sung by accusative ‘victim-captives’ who toss blame around with the same energy and ill-effects as well-placed Katyusha rockets.
Blame is mankind’s black hole; no amount of suffering, no amount of amends, and no amount of appeasement or compensation will keep it from consuming the vital, life-nurturing resources of the accused.An examination of black history or Palestinian history reveals a historical concourse of fouled behaviors strewn with the bodies of innocent mortals. What if other tribes, other religions, disinterred the historical wrongs of Palestinians and blacks?
What if the destructive energy directed at Boers and Jews was re-directed to set-right all of human history’s fouls? Where would it end? Tribe would blame tribe; nation would blame nation; religion would blame religion; the oppressed would blame oppressor; captives would blame captors; race would blame race. Future human history would be a repetition of past human history – an ugly, infinite death spiral.
New sins would be committed to set-right old sins; more blame would be created followed by more guilt then more blame - The totality of humankind’s energy dedicated to an endless rotational feud.
Until I fully understood the manipulative, fouled schemes of those who blamed me for their misery, I was destined to be enslaved in an imperfect mortal’s struggle for vindication. Forgiveness, I have learned, must include an understanding that all men are imperfect.
There is nothing so evil about the history of my race that persuades me to spend my life making penance for deeds I have not committed to people I have not harmed. Similarly, blame exacted on Boers and Jews has as its only foundation the projection of the accuser’s self-inflicted misery.Reasonable men view history’s evils with contempt and sorrow: We see ourselves as the accuser and the accused. We reject the notion that guilt is synonymous with virtue and guilt is a constructive outlet for blame.
History and human nature teaches that Boers and Jews will not escape the contrivances of their accusers. They haven’t the power to dissuade selfish, ravenous madmen from pillaging their lives; pleas for human dignity and mercy are wasted. The process of appeasement and human sacrifice will not cease until Boers and Jews vanquish self-destructive behaviors that are the product of internalized guilt.When we are free from the bondage of guilt we see with bitter clarity the selfish, lazy, contemptuous, empty souls of black and Palestinian accusers that seek to fill their empty vessels with the misery of innocents. Decent men seek reasonable conscience and, hopefully, an acknowledgement of humanity’s shared historical imperfections. Perhaps here the troubled spiral stalls.
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